


Mystery Inc. But Gay

by thescienceofsymmetry



Category: Scooby Doo - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Origin Story, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, Fred and Shaggy are also gay in the background, M/M, Scooby is a normal dog sorry, Velma is a gay barista, and falls hard for Daphne
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-23
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-09 16:41:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10416516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thescienceofsymmetry/pseuds/thescienceofsymmetry
Summary: Velma is just trying to get through college by working as a barista, but a certain customer catches her eye and changes the course of her life forever. Daphne will open up new worlds for Velma as they both help the other discover themselves. This is also the story of how the gang gets together and Mystery Inc. is formed.





	1. Thanks, Shaggy (for knocking out the wifi)

**Author's Note:**

> Also known as: Velma is super gay for Daphne and Fred is super gay for Shaggy before Mystery Inc. is a thing. This is how they fall in love and get together to solve mysteries. Also also known as: this was meant to be a cute coffeeshop one-shot and now it's a slow burn romance plus origin story because I got too invested.
> 
> I plan on updating once a week or once every two weeks, the more you prester me the faster I'll write because I love attention (as if anyone other than me is producing or consuming Scooby Doo fanfic in the year 2017). But if you are reading this and have any comments or suggestions, my tumblr is acelionheart. Please talk to me I'm so lonely.
> 
> Thanks for reading!

"Iced caramel macchiato for Fred!" called Velma.

It was just another day of work for Velma, slinging coffee to sleep deprived college students to pay her own way through school. She worked nights after class so things were generally slower at the shop than they would be in the morning or even during the day, just a few procrastinators needing their night coffee and a place where the glow of their laptops wouldn’t wake up their roommates. Tonight had been average so far. The only patrons were Fred, a criminal justice major, and Shaggy, undeclared. Both were regulars at the shop and were friendly, especially when they were trying to avoid their work. Shaggy came in almost every night because their shop was the only one in town that let him bring in his great dane, and they only let him do that because he bought more croissants than everyone else in town combined. Velma and Fred usually ended up leaving around the same time and often talked on their way out. Sometimes her manager made snide comments about how cute of a couple they were, hah, if only he knew the real story, she thought. Velma had started thinking of both of them as friends, and was considering inviting them to hang out if she ever got a night off. 

Velma was broken out of her pondering by the sudden hiss of the expresso machine. She spun around and moved the levers just so to make the temperamental machine happy again. She had worked at the café the full time she had been at college so far, almost three years, so she knew all of the tricks to make everything work just right. Velma knew how to jiggle the storage room door to open it when it stuck, how much whipped cream would fit in a cup without overflowing, and even how to make the grouchiest baby boomer leave a positive review card. Velma might not understand people that well, but she thrived at work and school.

Velma was a forensics major and at the top of her class while also balancing her job and being president of the debate club. Unfortunately, being around dead bodies and arguing politics didn’t give her the best social skills. She had actually joined the debate team as a freshman to improve her confidence and public speaking, but it mostly just made her great at research and being right.

The barista puttered around behind the counter, cleaning this, tidying that, and trying not to think about the paper she should work on the next day. She glanced at her manager outside, still on his break. He was nice enough but avoided work if it was at all possible. On slow nights like this it didn’t particularly matter. Velma wasn’t exactly overwhelmed by the two customers, one of which who was writing quietly. Velma knew the other one was obviously looking at memes instead of doing his work by the way he scrolled continuously, stopping only to snort-chuckle quietly.

Just then, the bell over the front door jingled and Velma walked to the cashier without looking up from the cups she was prepping. “Good evening! What can I-,“ Velma paused in the middle of her greeting script when she finally looked up at the customer. She was beautiful – long auburn hair, impeccable clothes, and the most gorgeous, piercing green eyes. Velma’s poor little gay heart couldn’t take it. She realized that she was staring and quickly collected herself.

“What, uh, can I get for you t-today?” she stuttered. Apparently she wasn’t as collected as she thought. She reflexively pushed her glasses up further on her nose.

The mystery girl smiled – she probably got reactions like this a lot. “I’d like a medium vanilla latte please,” she said.  
“For here or to go?” Velma asked.  
“For here,” another smile.  
“Name? For the order, I mean.”  
“Daphne.”

Velma told her the total and started making her drink. For once she was flustered. First she accidentally used caramel instead of vanilla and had to start over. Then she overflowed the cup when trying to pour the milk. Finally she set the mug in front of Daphne. She also set down a chocolate scone, partially to apologize for the wait and partially as a social anxiety fueled version of flirting.

Daphne looked up from her typing and noticed the scone. “How did you know that chocolate was my favorite?” she asked.

Alright, be smooth, be smooth, Velma thought.

“Rich - I mean tasty – I mean sweet – you’re sweet!” Velma stuttered. She swore she heard Fred cough, “Smooth,” and made a mental note to stop giving him free extra caramel syrup.

Fortunately, Daphne just giggled. “You sure know how to complement a lady,” she said. Her reaction put Velma at ease and she relaxed a bit. 

“May I sit?” Velma asked, gesturing at the chair opposite Daphne.

“Sure thing,” Daphne replied.

“Well, then I’m sure you’ll be really impressed when I ask if you come here often?” Velma said.

Daphne laughed again and Velma could see that quickly becoming her favorite sound. “This is actually my first time here, but I can see it becoming a habit. I’m a student at Coolsville U. but I don’t usually explore off campus,” she said.

“Why are you here tonight then?” Velma inquired.

“The Wi-Fi was out in my dorm and I really need to finish this assignment tonight. I think someone spilled soda on the router,” Daphne said. Shaggy cleared his throat guiltily.

“What are you working on?” Velma asked further. She hoped that she wasn’t bothering Daphne, but she also didn’t want to stop talking to her. She adjusted her apron a bit.

“I have to write an article on the recent fluctuation in carrot prices. It’s boring I know, but I’m a journalism major and not every news story can be interesting I guess,” Daphne said with a smile.

“I totally get what you mean. I’m a forensics major and I didn’t know that solving crimes required so much essay writing,” Velma replied. Suddenly, the expresso machine groaned.

“Sorry, I have to take care of that,” Velma said. She didn’t wait for a response before running back behind the counter. She banged around for a few minutes until the cranky machine was settled again. By the time she turned around, Daphne was furiously typing on her MacBook again. Velma sighed, knowing that she shouldn’t disturb her again. That turned out to be the correct decision when a group of customers came in. Velma handled their orders without a problem, but soon the trickle of customers turned into a midnight rush hour. Even Velma’s manager finally realized that he should help and came back in to assist. Apparently more students had realized that their Wi-Fi was out and flocked to the shop, one of the only places in town open that late and that also had Wi-Fi.

By the time that all the customers had been served, Velma’s shift was almost over. She looked around the shop and saw that Daphne had left already. Velma felt her excitement drain away and went to go clean up her dishes. When she lifted up the scone place, she found a small slip of paper underneath with ‘Velma’ written on it. Velma felt a cold wave of nervous nausea wash over her. She unfolded the note slowly. What if she wants me to stay away from her? What if she hates me? Velma thought. She read the note slowly so she was sure that she was understanding it fully. In curly purple handwriting, the note said: “Sorry I had to leave before your shift was over, but I have to get up early tomorrow for class. Call me tomorrow, I’d love to see you again. <3 Daphne”. The note also had a phone number written below.

Velma couldn’t help the smile that slowly spread across her face as she read. She glanced around to see if anyone saw her and tucked the note safely in her pocket. She finished up her closing chores with unusual zest and waved goodbye to her manager. Shaggy had left a while before, but Fred followed her out of the café.

“I can’t help but notice that someone has a spring in her step this evening,” Fred teased, “Does it have anything to do with that cute red head that you were talking to?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Velma needled back, “But don’t think I didn’t notice you looking at Shaggy a lot more than usual. Is he really your type?” she asked.

Fred shrugged. “I don’t know, he has that artistic hipster homeless vibe about him that I like. And he’s one of the only other out guys I know,” he admitted.

Velma laughed. “I think the word you’re looking for is slob, Fred. But I get what you mean. It’s hard to find other gay people in this town,” she said with a sigh. “I hope Daphne doesn’t think I’m just a straight girl looking for a friend. I hope she isn’t just looking for a friend,” she added.

“Velma, she spent three minutes choosing the right pen to write that note in and then rewrote it twice. I don’t think she’s just looking for a friend,” Fred said. Velma brightened a bit at that.

“Fred, have I ever told you how much I value our friendship?”  
“No, never.”  
“Well you’ve earned back your free caramel syrup.”  
“Wait, when did I lose that?”  
“When you made that ‘smooth’ comment.”  
“Alright, I guess that’s fair.”  
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Fred.”

“Take care of yourself,” Fred said while turning to walk to his car. “Good luck with Daphne!” he shouted over his shoulder.

Velma grinned begrudgingly and drove out of the café’s parking lot. She couldn’t get Daphne’s smile and laugh out of her head, but it wasn’t like she wanted to. Like she had talked about with Fred, Coolsville was a fairly small town with an even smaller LGBT population. Velma was only interested in women and it seemed like all the lesbian and bi women (including trans and nonbinary women, of course) in town were either taken or not her type. It had been a long time since Velma had been on a date or even found someone she was interested in. She really hoped that her feelings for Daphne weren’t just out of loneliness. Velma shook her head, there was more to it than desperation, she thought. She didn’t know what Daphne saw in her that was interesting enough to give her her number, but she tried not to think about that. Velma had ruined enough chances with her anxiety and self-doubt and she really wanted this time to be different.

Velma parked her little sedan outside her dorm and shuffled tiredly inside. She got ready for bed quietly and slipped into her bed. As she fell asleep, Velma thought of Daphne and looked forward to the day to come.


	2. This Probably Isn't Our Problem (Hint: It is)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! Thank you so much to everyone who's reading this and your kind kudos and comments. Just so you know, even if it takes a while for me to post a new chapter I have no intention of abandoning this fic.
> 
> Also special thanks to rolyat96 for being a fantastic beta!

-BEEP BEEP BEEP-

Velma awoke with a sigh and rolled over to pat her alarm’s off button. She sat up and stretched, wondering why she felt particularly optimistic today. That was when she remembered the auburn-haired girl from the night before and felt a cautious grin spread across her face. Today Velma was going to call Daphne and-and what? she thought. Just talk? Ask her out? Yes, ask her out, she answered herself with a nod. There was no room for dragging her feet when it was very possible that Daphne would lose interest. I better not wait or I’ll chicken out too, she admitted to herself. With that, she swung her feet out of bed and shuffled to the kitchen to make her morning coffee. 

***

“-and now for something that may be a bit more intriguing for you,” Velma broke out of her diligent note-taking reverie to listen more intently to what her criminology professor was saying. Though Velma loved her chosen major, sometimes lectures were a bit too long for even her to stay completely enthralled, especially when it was her fourth class of the day. Shaggy was sitting a few rows in front of her and had fallen asleep within two minutes of class starting, no doubt relying on Velma to give him her notes later… which she always agreed to. Criminology was actually one of her favorite courses due mostly to the professor. Dr. Evans was a well-respected investigator for many years before she retired to the more quiet life of teaching. Now her graying hair was pulled back in a clean bun and her sharp eyes focused on the front row of students as she continued talking.

“As you may have heard in the news recently, there have been a string of jewelry store robberies over the last few weeks. No suspects have been found yet, and the police have no major leads. The only thing that seems to connect the robberies is a mysterious purple slime found at the scene. No organic or traceable materials have been recovered yet, and the investigators are at a loss to find the thieves or the source of the slime. Now, I want all of you to read up on this story as it develops. I might just award some extra credit to the student with the best paper on it, which I’ll talk about in more detail later on. We might just get to watch a fascinating case evolve in front of us before the term is over,” she said. Velma furrowed her brow in thought, purple slime? What is she talking about? But Dr. Evans wasn’t someone to joke about a case. Either way, Velma knew she had to look into it, even if just to have a reason to talk to her favorite professor more. 

Velma filed out from the lecture hall with the rest of the students and felt her heart leap a bit in her chest. After a day filled with class and homework, it was finally almost time to call Daphne.

“Hey Velma, where are you going in such a hurry?” Velma jumped a little. Somehow Shaggy had managed to sneak up on her even with his usually clumsy limbs. Shaggy was one of those people who always seemed too lanky for their own good and ended up tripping over themselves and just about everything else. Velma kept walking and Shaggy followed alongside her.

“Wow, you must be, like, thinking really hard if I managed to scare you,” Shaggy said with one of his signature giggles, “I’m usually the one that’s scared!” And he was dead on with that observation. Ever since Velma met him, Shaggy seemed to have the ability to be scared by just about anything. Coffee machine hisses, the dark, thunderstorms, strange cats, the chocolate company changing their packaging, all things that she had seen Shaggy get scared by. Though she would never say anything, she had the feeling that the reason he spent almost every night at the coffee shop was that he didn’t want to be in his apartment alone any more time than he had to be. Things had gotten a bit better since he got Scooby, who acted like a sort of unofficial support dog, but he was also just as afraid of most things as his owner was. Velma had never seen a dog that big be so afraid of basically anything that moved. Still, the pair seemed made for each other and Velma was happy that Shaggy found Scooby.

“You just startled me a little, Shaggy. I was thinking about something,” Velma said, not sure if they were close enough yet to discuss her love life. Shaggy had seen her talking to Daphne the night before but had left early enough to not know they talked any more than a usual customer and barista.

“I think you mean someone,” Shaggy hinted. Well there goes that theory. Apparently Fred had decided for her whether to tell Shaggy. Velma shrugged internally, maybe it would be nice to have friends close enough to tease me about this stuff, she thought. Velma had spent most of her life up to this point with books as her main friends, but the more she grew up the more she wished for people to be close to. It seemed she might have two friends suddenly waiting right in front of her.

“Alright Shaggy, you got me,” Velma said with a laugh, “I’m thinking about Daphne, who I’m sure Fred told you all about.”  
“Well there’s not much to, like, know right now.”  
“Fair enough. I’m calling her soon though.”  
“And then you can tell us about it at the coffee shop tonight?”  
“Only if you tell me about you and Fred later.”  
“Wait, me and Fred?”

“You heard me, now I’m going inside to make a call and I’ll see you later,” Velma said as they approached her dorm. She smiled at the increasingly pink Shaggy and waved goodbye. She had some positive news to report to Fred then, it seemed.

Velma walked up the two flights of stairs to her floor and unlocked the door to her shared living room. She waved hello to her suitemates and ducked into her thankfully empty bedroom. Her clock’s glowing red numerals spelled out 4:38. She had work at six and should start getting ready pretty soon. Well, now or never, Velma thought. She pulled out her phone and the note Daphne wrote and tapped the number in. Her finger hovered briefly over the “Call” button and she realized that she was shaking slightly. She went over the script she had prepared for the call over the course of the day in her head. When she thought she was ready, Velma pressed the button and took the time her phone spent ringing to steady herself with deep breathes. It’s going to be fine, I like her, she supposedly likes me, it’ll be great-

“Hello?” said the voice from the other end of the call. Daphne sounded slightly distorted through the phone but still as lovely as the night before. And then of course Velma forgot everything from her meticulously prepared script.

“Hi Daphne, its Velma! Uh, from the coffee shop last night.”  
“Yes, I remember you, Velma,” she said with a light-hearted laugh.  
“Oh great, well I called to ask if you wanted to, uh…-“  
“Go out? Yes, I would like that. I’m free Friday night, how does that sound?”  
Velma silently thanked her boss for giving her Fridays off “because she needed to get out more”. “That sounds great! What about 7pm, we can go eat and see a movie.”  
“Sounds like a plan. I like Italian food, we can meet at DiAngelo’s and walk to the theater after.”  
“Perfect! I’ll see you then, Daphne.”  
“I can’t wait. Bye for now, Velma.” And the call ended with a single “click”.

Velma slowly pulled her phone away from her ear and her face broke into a grin as the conversation sunk in. “Yes!” she whooped, collapsing back on her bed and victoriously waving her hands in the air. The housemates in the living room probably thought she was crazy, but she didn’t care. She had a date with Daphne! Velma got up and quickly got ready for work. Not even the prospect of a night of work after class all day could get her down.

Stopping only to grab the dinner she had packed for herself that morning from the fridge, Velma practically bounced out the door. During her drive to work Velma mulled over the phone conversation. She was happy that Daphne seemed as excited as she was for Friday, and really appreciated that she had taken charge to fill in the gaps when she stumbled with her words. Velma had a tendency to get particularly anxious when she had to decide things for other people, so Daphne picking the day and place to eat really helped put her at ease. It was probably way too early to say this, but Velma thought they complemented each other’s personalities pretty well. As she pulled into the parking lot, Velma laughed to herself. She was overthinking almost as much as Shaggy!

Work passed as usual for the majority of Velma’s shift. She worked on autopilot and daydreamed about Friday. Some part of her knew that she shouldn’t get her hopes up so much but she also couldn’t bring herself to squash this rare moment of optimism. During the evening both Fred (iced caramel macchiato as always) and Shaggy (venti chocolate frap with four pumps each of chocolate and mocha and two of raspberry with enough sugar for a whole birthday party of six year olds) came to the shop. They both made her promise them to tell them about Daphne as soon as her shift was over. This interaction cemented them both in Velma’s mind as nosy pests and in her heart as her friends.

Velma was giving the coffee machine a last wipe-down with her cleaning cloth when she heard the shuffle of Shaggy’s favorite chair sliding back. “Velma, could you, uh, turn the tv to the news?” he squeaked. Velma knew that voice. That was the Shaggy-is-scared voice and she knew that it wasn’t something to ignore. She grabbed the remote from under the counter and turned the tv from the chill music channel to the local news station. The screen showed a helicopter view of one of the local jewelry stores surrounded by police cars.

“-reporting live from Diamond Dreams jewelry store, we’re covering a story developing right now. We’re getting word from the police that an unknown intruder entered the building about twenty minutes ago and is still inside. All staff evacuated safely and described the intruder as a ‘large purple mass’. We have not yet gotten any confirmation on the validity of this statement but have been assured by the police that citizens have no need to panic,” the reporter stated not-quite-assuringly.

“Oh no, that means we have to, like, REALLY panic,” Shaggy said, voice increasing in pitch.

“It’ll be fine Shaggy, they’ve only targeted jewelry stores, it’s not like they’re hurting anyone,” Fred reasoned, giving him a reassuring shoulder pat. Velma couldn’t help but notice that his eyes stayed glued to the screen as he said it though. Suddenly, she heard screams coming from the tv and whipped back around to look at it. It appeared that there was something coming out of the store, something that certainly wasn’t human. It was moving directly for the center of the police circle at a deliberate pace.

“We can now see the intruder. It does appear to be a large purple blob,” the reporter said bluntly. Shots rang out. They obviously impacted the slime but didn’t slow it down or seem to affect it at all. It resolutely continued toward the police line. Just as it was about to impact the officers, it exploded into hundreds of mini-blobs. The officers scattered, obviously giving into their instinct to not be hit with the foreign substance.  
“Well there goes my person-in-a-suit theory,” Velma said. Fred laughed humorlessly.

“And now it appears that the intruder has broken into pieces and gotten past the police line. The pieces appear to be flowing into the sewer. We have lost visual on the intruder,” the reporter concluded.

“That raised a lot more questions than answers,” Fred said, breaking the shocked silence. Both Shaggy and Scooby looked pale, as much as a dog can look pale.

“What a fascinating dilemma,” Velma said.

“Dilemma? You call that monster a dilemma, Velma?” Shaggy asked shakily, “What was that?”

“Dr. Evans talked about this in class today, it’s robbed multiple jewelry stores but hasn’t seemed at all interested in hurting anyone. We don’t know what it is right now, but it’s certainly left plenty of evidence all over the crime scene and they’ll figure it out in no time. I’m sure it’s not really a monster,” Velma said in what she really hoped was a reassuring voice.

“And even if it is, it’s not up to us to figure it out. We’re not the police and we aren’t equipped to do anything on our own. We’re just college kids, Shaggy,” Fred added. Shaggy nodded a bit and it seemed like the color was returning to his face.

“You guys are probably right. That doesn’t mean I’ll sleep any better tonight though,” Shaggy said.

“I can help with that,” Fred said confidently. Both Velma and Shaggy turned to him with wide eyes. “No, not like that! I just mean I can sleep on his couch so he isn’t alone tonight,” Fred finished defensively. They both silently decided to ignore the bright shade of red Fred had turned.

“That’d be really great, man, thanks,” Shaggy said. He definitely looked more relaxed now.

“Well if that’s settled,” Velma said, turning off the tv, “I just so happen to have news of my own!” And she told them all about what happened with Daphne on the phone that day and what she was planning for Friday. Velma couldn’t help but feel a warmth in her chest as she shared her news with them, which only increased when they responded with just as much excitement as she was feeling. She wondered if this is how teenagers felt when they told their friends about their crushes at sleepovers. It was a nice feeling. 

The three eventually realized how late it was getting and reluctantly agreed to continue their conversation later. Velma closed up the shop and waved goodnight to Shaggy and Fred and drove home, feeling incredibly content despite living in a world that now inexplicably also contained a purple slime monster with an affinity for shiny things.


End file.
